Chapter 1
Chapter
One
There were no crying mourners, no soft prayers whispered, nor solemn tolling of church bells echoing. The rustling of dead leaves sweeping off the damp ground from the biting breeze. A chill ran down my spine, setting me shivering against its icy touch.
Salem’s graveyard stretched around me like a chaotic battlefield.
Headstones jutted out at odd angles from the ground, standing as crooked soldiers in this battle.
Discarded flowers and brownish wreaths lay wilted on the hallowed land.
The smell of newly turned earth carried in the air, making me sick.
Not only had the dark witch wreaked chaos at the cemetery, but a small crowd of humans had gathered behind the wrought-iron fences to watch doomsday.
Guttural grunts and sharp, slicing noises reverberated through the air, drawing my attention to Torin's fierce battle with thick branches. The limbs, resembling deadly cobras, relentlessly surged towards him in overwhelming numbers. One of the branches coiled around his neck and squeezed, causing Torin’s facial features to contort in agony.
Amidst the chaos, another whimper drew my attention to my bodyguard’s motionless body on the ground. A massive marble stone pinned Hayden’s chest while he took labored breaths accompanied by wheezes and groans that signaled his final moments slipping away.
Before me, Cordelia muttered her spells.
She didn’t look like a dark witch but a human gothic girl going to a wild concert to have a good time.
She wore her ripped black jeans and a black shirt with a white logo of a bird on it.
Cordelia had lost the cloak she wore at the town square, where I tossed the map in her direction to distract her, only for her to catch up with us later and wreak havoc at the graveyard.
The crescent-shaped tattoo adorned her smooth skin between her arched eyebrows.
She looked like a lady boss I’d typically look up to and admire if she wasn’t trying to kill us all right now.
Despite the danger she posed, there was a hint of compassion in her piercing brown eyes—something familiar that made me warier.
Her expression reflected unwavering resolve.
The woman fought for what she believed and wanted.
At that moment, the dark witch wanted to hurt me and steal the magical bracelet wrapped around my forearm as if it had always belonged there. The Grimoire Book of Athame led me to Salem to find the box with this jewelry. The magic book opened with my tears.
An image of the faded blue cover of the other magic book, The Book of Banished Souls, popped into my mind. Having solved the riddle earlier, I was sure this book would open when I poured my blood over the cover. Someone wanted me to have the witch books and find the objects on the map.
I shook my head and focused on Cordelia, who was still in a trance, muttering under her breath as she commanded the branches to suffocate Torin. Earlier, she’d thrown the headstone over Hayden, trapping him to the ground.
To say that I was living through the worst day of my life was an understatement.
Shaking my arm, I hoped to awaken the magic bracelet and extend it into a whip or a rope—a weapon I could use to defeat Cordelia. I was unarmed while facing a dark witch with powers beyond most supernaturals.
What could a mere human do?
“C’mon, work,” I mumbled as I kept prying the golden jewelry off my arm. “I don’t want my mates to die today, nor do I want to, either.”
I groaned when the bracelet didn’t budge. If I couldn’t strangle the dark witch with it, then what? Dying without finding out who I was and why I was a human bonded to two mates sounded like a miserable death.
And yet, what was I to do now?
I’d brought Torin and Hayden here, risking their lives for me. What kind of future Queen couldn’t protect her people?
My mind reeled, my body shaking. I stood frozen to my spot while I darted my gaze between Torin and Hayden. Who should I have helped first?
“You’re better off without these men, child,” Cordelia said.
I wanted to shout at her that she was a heartless witch, but then I remembered the betrayal this woman must have experienced.
And I only saw a glimpse of her mother burning on the stake, betrayed by her husband, Cordelia’s father, who’d hinted to the authorities that his wife was a witch.
Even though it was the truth, no person deserved such a fate.
Cordelia seemed to treasure her memories of her mother.
I couldn’t imagine a life without my mom, and although the witch would kill us all, my heart went out to her and her loss. Cordelia warned me against my mates because she no longer trusted men.
I rubbed the magic bracelet to get it to transform into a whip, but nothing happened.
“You ignorant child. You can’t even command the weapon.”
“Cordelia, don’t do this. There are other ways to settle this,” I said and glanced at her while scratching at the skin of my arm.
The dark witch lowered her hands, and the loud thud of falling branches echoed in the air. She dashed toward me, and when she stood before me within seconds, bile filled my throat.
Cordelia reached for me, but I dodged her and threw a combo punch and a kick, which Cordelia evaded. I retreated and looked around for anything I could use as a weapon.
In the corner of my eye, I detected a gray object flying my way. I lunged to the side and landed on my hands and knees, avoiding a collision with a heavy headstone. I turned and was about to stand when Cordelia appeared in front of me.
Not again.
She grabbed me by the arm, her palm making direct contact with the golden bracelet, and shouted in pain.
A crackling noise, like the static from clothes fresh out of the dryer, echoed around me.
Cordelia pulled her hand to her chest and held it as if it had just been burned. Her eyes widened and turned angry.
“How’s this possible?” Cordelia said, still dazed. “If my family athame enchanted it, I should be able to touch the object…unless…”
The bracelet protected me somehow. Whoever made it must have known I needed a weapon, but why let me have it?
The thick golden strips were engraved with a pentagram containing the same four symbols I saw in my dream realm—fire, earth, wind, and water. However, one pointy angle of the star had no symbol—the fifth element, the spirit. Ironically, the carved pentagram was as incomplete as I was.
The thought that the little butterfly creature who guided me to both magic books created the bracelet crossed my mind, but I quickly dismissed the idea. The creature was only a messenger—he was no bigger than the size of a kitchen knife—and I needed to find out who sent him to me.
Suddenly, a blur of color rushed toward the dazed witch. Torin must have freed himself when the spell was interrupted. He charged at Cordelia, throwing her a few feet away.
Her petite body flew into the air and hit a tombstone, knocking it down. If she were a human, she wouldn’t have survived this strike. But Cordelia was very much alive, holding her back and rubbing the side of her head. She slowly attempted to stand.
Torin’s crimson eyes met mine. His vampire must have pushed through, seeing his mate was in trouble. His gaze kept darting between me and Cordelia.
I wanted to stand up to show Torin I was okay so that he could attack the dark witch. She was weakened. As I stood, the skin on my palms and elbows stung. My pants were ripped at the knees, displaying my bloody skin.
I put my hand up to stop Torin. “Torin, don’t come near.”
The last thing I wanted was to distract his vampire with the scent of my blood.
But the vampire Alpha dashed to me and scanned my body up and down as if I were a broken doll. His crimson eyes showed no signs of the usual hunger for my blood. Instead, I only saw concern there.
“Are you okay, Anna?”
I shook my head. “You should have finished the witch.”
Cordelia cackled.
“Yes, indeed, it was the wrong choice, Alpha,” she said, smiling, and my stomach churned.
But I had Torin next to me, and a flicker of hope sparked in my chest.
Cordelia fixed her shirt and ran her fingers through her long brown hair, which now had white specks of stone tangled in it.
She finally gave up fixing her hair and groaned. “Now, Princess, where is the athame?”
I shrugged. “How would I know?”
If Cordelia couldn’t remove the bracelet from my arm, she would want the next best thing—the athame, a witch’s knife for enchanting objects and infusing them with power.
How many more whips and other weapons could she create if she had the athame? She could arm an army. The dark witch could bring werewolves to extinction.
“I don’t have your athame, Cordelia, and seeing that it wasn’t in the box, I’ll guess your family didn’t want you to inherit it.”
Cordelia claimed the ritual knife belonged to her family, and I believed her.
I might have touched a nerve because Cordelia’s face hardened, and her eyes radiated anger and pain.
“Take off the bracelet,” she said with a clenched jaw.
Torin’s body tensed next to mine.
I didn’t know if it was possible to take off the bracelet since I’d been prying at it, and it still wouldn’t come off.
“Even if I can take it off, I’m not giving it to you,” I said. “I’m not going to make you more powerful with yet another weapon so you could go around killing werewolves and vampires.”
The dark witch frowned. “You sheltered child! The witch trials were the doing of the vampires and werewolves. When the supernaturals saw that the witches weren’t going to be their work slaves, they decided to get rid of us.”
I let out a heavy sigh.
“It’s in the past, Cordelia,” I said. “You’ve already hurt my bodyguard. How many more people do you want to hurt because of your vengeance?”
She sent a glance at Hayden and exhaled deeply.
“I thought the Princess was smarter than that. I warned you to stay away from them, didn’t I?” She dusted off her hands on her jeans, leaving white streaks of dust on the material. “So, this is your final decision, child?”
“I won’t give you the bracelet, Cordelia, no matter what,” I said with conviction, drawing on Torin’s body heat next to me.
“Since your mates haven’t managed to kill you yet, then I will,” she said casually, as if she talked about the weather, and shrugged.
I swallowed. Cordelia must have been wrong. Hayden and Torin had saved my life on many occasions, although just being around them put my life in danger. So, what exactly did the dark witch mean?
No, she is trying to psych me out and trick me.
Cordelia was at the end of her sanity. She stared me down with so much hatred in her eyes that a shiver ran down my spine. The witch attempted to slow her breathing by taking deep breaths but was too far gone.
Her icy eyes settled on my arm and nothing else. “You’ll pay for this. Since you are keeping something of mine, I’ll take away something of yours.”
I drew in a sharp breath.
Torin pressed the side of his body into mine. “Anna, we should move.”
Without disconnecting his gaze from the witch, he grasped my forearm and pulled me back a few steps. Since he held my arm over the bracelet, I snapped my gaze to his face for any signs of discomfort, but he didn’t flinch.
The magic bracelet was letting him touch it…and letting him touch me. Since there must have been a protection spell on the bracelet to zap the witch, did the spell not work on my mate? Was it because a mate would never hurt me?
Torin’s hand squeezed gently around mine, drawing my attention to the witch. He probably had calculated his chances of getting to her before she could cast her spell.
Cordelia knelt and touched the ground with her palm, her lips moving while my pulse sped. The ground shook, and the earth broke into a large gaping hole underneath our feet.
Torin pulled me aside, and Cordelia tilted her head. Amusement flashed behind her eyes but quickly disappeared.
As the ground opened into a dark, endless crack, roots sprouted around us. Torin held on to me tightly and steadied me, but my foot slipped over a root and twisted. Sharp pain cut through it.
“Anna?”
“It’s nothing. My ankle is just—”
Torin and I wobbled as the soil shook again, and the crack opened closer to Torin’s feet. He lost his balance, and his body leaned back over the opening.
I reached with my other hand to pull him toward me, although my feet teetered at the edge. I was going to fall into the hole with Torin.
At the last moment, he released me and, with one hand, pushed me hard away from the hole.
When I steadied myself and turned, Torin was gone.